Shards
by ShadowHawkX3
Summary: Something is amiss at the River Belle Path. Something has gone horribly wrong, and as of yet, only two young boys are witness to it. BUT...with everything else, life goes on. In a letter home, Hawk pines for freedom and progress, but complains slightly.
1. A Meeting of Oddballs

This is the prologue.

There is a world unlike ours, where the people are divided into four races, dependent on legendary crystals that save them from the ever-present miasma.

Monsters constantly roam the land, quick to fall upon those foolish enough to step outside the crystal's protection.

Every year, the crystal's aura grows faint, and, if left alone, will rot and become overtaken by the miasma. Thus, each village calls forth a band of adventurers to seek myrrh, which revives the crystal.

This task is easier said than done: monsters constantly threaten all those who dare to venture near the myrrh trees and each one is said to be protected by a great beast of unimaginable strength.  
But this tradition has been followed for many years without fail, so new adventurers have no fear at all.  
They have much to fear within the coming months, however, and that fear comes with good reason.

Our story begins in a small village called Perion.

Chapter One: A Meeting of Oddballs

* * *

Hawk had seen better days than this. 

It had been a normal day so far. One: he awoke, as usual, to begin his chores, as usual, and go work athis dad theblacksmith's shop. As usual.  
Today was, fortunately, unusual in the form of an old traveler. He was, to most, frail and weak, but he hid a secret in his pocket. An old farmer's hatperched on top of his head and a shaggy beard covered his chin, all the way down to his chest.He wore an old faded black coat, patched-up here and there and ripped in other places still. With a single pair of pants to hold his dignity, he shambled up the road and into the village of Perion.

Now Perion isn't a very big village at all; in fact, its crystal is only about the size of a small house.  
It is home to a small amount of people; only about seven or eight familiescan live there together at once.

But the old man wasn't concerned with the crystal nor the town itself. He was concerned with...well, you could say he was not concerned about anything.

Upon entering the village, the old man earned many stares from passersby and noticing the slight commotion he posed a question to the growing crowd:  
"Where mightI find a boy who is entering his manhood?" And they all gave him the same response:

"In that small house over the hill lives Hawk. An oddball, if I ever saw one."

Oddball indeed.  
At fifteen, Hawk, the Selkie that he is, wasvery popular with the local young ladies until very recently. Havinga somewhat insane outlook on life, he is veryunpopular with the authorities, the rebel that he is. His name is a bit unorthodox, having been raised by a Clavat mother and a Selkie father. Rumors are abound that the Clavat isn't Hawk's real mother, but he loves them all the same.  
His long blue-white hair is swept back and spiked, his earring in the shape of a sword. His grey sleeves have been extended with random blue pieces ofcloth, making it run past his hands, giving the impression that his shirt is too big for him. His pants are longer than his legs, giving a very baggy look.  
The only other thing that makes him different from other Selkies is that, as a rebel, he does not use a racket, but instead, prefers to forge his own sword-like weapon.

It is when Hawk justleft his home that he literally bumped into the old man, knocking him to the ground.  
"What-AAH! Whoa-"

"No, lad, no need to apologize..." With amazing alacrity, the old man recovered from his stumble. "If I could ask something...?"

"Uh, sure."

"Do you know where I might find a young man named Hawk?"

"Speaking. Any wayI can help you?"

"Well...not really. Name's Hourai, by the way."

"Nice to meet you...?" Hawk had to bend low to shakethe old man'shand. He had an unusually strong grip and Hawk was massaging his fingers when they pulled away.

"Have you ever climbed a tree?"

"Huh?"

"If you climb a tree, you see things you could never see before!"

"Ri-i-i-ight..." Hawk started to walk away when the old man sprang up in front of him, blocking his path.

"If you climb trees too much, you get hit by lightning! A reminder to keep your feet on the ground!"

"Mister? Could I at least walk to my dad's shop?"

"Sure! But why walk when you can run? Because you pay more attention to the surroundings!"

Hawk moved forward, only to be blocked by Hourai again, babbling yet another verse of nonsense.

"Avoid itand you're smart! Face it and you're brave! Believe it and you're stupid!"

"DUDE! You insane or something?"

Here, Hourai actually stopped galloping around and faced Hawk, looking him straight in the eye.  
"Well, for future reference...YES!"And so hecontinued to hop around.

"...uh..." Hawk had always considered himself insane, always talking differently from everyone else and sporting the longest hair anyone in the village had ever seen.  
He came nowhere near this guy though. It was a nice change, at least, to see this guy bouncing around while everybody else did their mundane work in the fields and shops.

It happened in an instant: Hourai immediately switched gears and suddenly stopped moving.  
"You. Hawk. Here."

Hawk was still staring at the bizarre man's sudden change of mood when he felt something sharp stab his side. He fell over, his eyes shut from the pain. He could hear the old man speak:  
"See this? Won over a hundred thousand fights." As Hawk clutched his bleeding ribcage, he squinted his eyes up and saw the old man brandishing a worn, yet beautifully crafted dagger.

Hourai then sheathed the dagger and it ended almost as quickly as it began. The old man's sanity slipped again and he started casting Cura at everyone in sight.

Thankfully, Hawk was one of those targets and the pain went away.

He couldn't blame the guy. If he was insane, there was nothing he could do about it.

An angry voice rang out, "HAWK!"

"Looks like they need you, boy! I'll be seeing you around very soon again, I think! Next Tuesday! Or never! Yesterday!" Hourai chortled as he made his way to bother the local alchemist, leaving Hawk alone to wonder why Bonta, the mayor of Perion, was asking (or, more accurately, roaring) to see him.

With a single sigh to mark his befuddlement, he turned around and headed to Bonta's house to face the music...

* * *

End Chapter One. 


	2. Memory Burn

Have we met?

Chapter Two: Memory Burn

* * *

"So you're Hawk's daddy, eh? Bet you take good care of him, the way he looks." 

"Thanks...we don't get much praise around here anymore."

"Hm? Anymore?"

Hourai was a stranger to many and an annoyance to everyone.  
To Hawk's dad, however, he was a breath of fresh air in a mundane life.

Hawk's father, Elan Do, was proud, but not arrogant; headstrong, but not overconfident.  
He was...not particularly happy with his wife and son, his last few years having been most unfortunate. From what his friends would tell you, he used to be a great fighter.  
Elan usually wore a suit that made him look significantly slender, yet impoverished. Originally woven with maroon silk, it had a number of tears and creases that were almost unnoticable unless you looked very hard. His blood-red boots were also an odd sight, as Selkies almost never wore such things. Elan's beige hair only came down to his shoulders, but for all the world it looked as though someone had run an iron over his head, for it was wild and mangled. As thin as his hair was, it fell about his face with a kind of careless elegance that nobody else could achieve even if they tried. His maroon colored eyes gave off a feeling of tiredness, but they shined with sincerity.

Someone's first impression of him would be tall and handsome.

Elan sighed heavily before answering Hourai.  
"A few years ago I was the greatest fighter in town. An accident occurred that seriously injured my son and I. While I recovered from a minor scratch, Hawk..."

"Didn't come off too well did he?"

Elan walked towards the window, staring out into the sky as if lost in thought.  
"...No. Something changed that day. He used to be confident, thoughtful and outgoing. His hair was black and his eyes were green. I know no magic that could have done that to my child."

He hesitated, then said "It was...something extraordinary. A great beam of light seemed to come down from the sky, marking the spot where people would come to perform the ritual of the Crystal. My son, who was closest at the time, entered that light, curious and jittery with excitement. Then a great lightning bolt struck, and it was as if all hell had broken loose."

"And your little boy was never the same?"

He turned away from the window and seemed to come out of a reverie.  
"Nothing I knew could restore him. He has since become the boy you see today."

A door slammed open. "And that's the way I've heard it, every single time."

Elan and Hourai looked round and saw that it was Hawk. A single glance told them that Hawk was angry, breathing heavily, his face set and his eyes blazing. "I've always told you that you've left something out, dad. None of that made sense the first time I heard it and it never made sense no matter how many times you told it to me."

"Hawk, please-"

"I'm leaving tommorrow." Hawk held a piece of paper in his hand. "The Crystal Caravan leaves around noon, which means I probably won't be able to hang around for very long."

Elan looked at his son, his eyes pleading. "Hawk, I...there are parts that even I don't understand and until I do, I don't think you should know either--"

"Know what? What exactly have you been hiding from me? This is why I ask you to never bring that stupid story up, I can't stand hearing that rubbish!"

"SHUT UP!" Hourai had stepped in between them, holding the ornate dagger in his right hand and Hawk against the wall with his left. It was troublesome, really, because Hawk was wasting his energy struggling against him.  
"You two better quiet down about the past, cause arguin' 'bout it's gonna get you nowhere. Oh don't you dare, laddie!" Hawk's hand had been drifting towards his waistline, exactly where a sword hilt would be.  
If he had it with him. Only now it was back at the blacksmith forge. Hawk remembered this and hastily put his hands in his pockets.

"Now you two better make up and solve this or else he's never gonna talk to you again, you're never gonna talk to him again, and you'll all be treading eggshells for the rest of your days! This pizza ain't gonna eat itself, so belly up and face it like a man!" Hourai relinquished his hold upon Hawk, letting him slide down the wall to the floor, where he landed with a soft whump.

Elan looked at Hourai and what he considered an overreaction to what he had just witnessed. Of course, things like that always happened between them...but it was the aftermath of these arguments that always plagued Elan. They never did talk to eachother after a fight, although they usually made up in a day or two. Yet he had not made any effort to rescue his son from the old man when he was pinned against the wall. Perhaps it was because he didn't need to be rescued, but he felt like he trusted the old man Hourai and knew he wouldn't hurt anything without a good reason.

Somehow.

Elan and Hawk stared at eachother. Then Hawk spoke:  
"I vow not to get angry again...if you never bring up that...that story."  
"Agreed. And I vow never to bow to such foolishness again. I should have realized you'd be upset."  
"That's alright."

"Well I think I'm done here," the old man spoke rather quickly. Hourai shambled across the room and reached the door. "I'll see you yet again, young man!" And the door was closed.

They looked at eachother for a moment, either of them not saying anything.  
Then Elan spoke. "I'm sorry Hawk. No one person should have to go through everything you've been through."  
"That's okay dad." Hawk's smiled returned from the dead-and a record it was too. It'd been only two weeks ago since he last smiled, and that was because he'd managed to reforge his dad's weapon. "I still have a question though."

"Ask anything you like, son."

"What's a pizza?"

"Huh...come to think of it, I never heard of something like that before. I never understood that old man's strange comparisons. I'll run it by your mother later."

"Speaking of mom, how is she?"

"Same as always. Never leaves her room."

"She's still--?"

"Yep."

Silence.

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"I'll write to you each week. Show mom the letters. I really hope she'll understand."

"I hope so too, son."

* * *

End Chapter Two. 


	3. Similar

_Ignorance is the cruelest weather.  
-Avi_

Chapter Three: Similar

* * *

It was still early morning when Hawk woke up. The sun had barely risen, but Hawk was wide awake. Why he would wake up in the wee hours of the morning are reasons best left to himself. 

Meanwhile, Hourai was happily dozing off in dreamland, hanging upside down on a stake by his feet. He'd gotten there when he'd asked the fisherman one too many questions and annoyed him to death. He took it in stride though and acted like this was what he did everyday.

Elan Do slept an uneasy sleep in his bed. He'd mulled over what had taken place yesterday and could not quite rid it from his mind.  
There wasn't much to do in the morning of the village of Perion.

Eventually the sun rose, and with it Hawk's confidence in the coming day. Hourai was struggling to cut himself free from the pole and managed it only by breaking the pole itself. He landed on his head.  
Even with a head injury, it probably wouldn't make any difference. Hourai would be Hourai.

Once the afternoon sun hit the center of the sky, a low rumbling could be heard in the distance.  
There were few people outside today. It was Sunday. Among those outside included Hawk, Hourai, Elan Do, and a few other villagers.  
A few minutes passed when the rumbling got louder. A caravan could be seen on the road, being slowly pulled towards the village by a papaomus.  
Hawk did not say anything in his excitement. Elan looked apprehensive.

With a final creak of the wheels, the caravan settled, awaiting its passengers.  
"Dad? What I said yesterday..."

"It's okay, son."

"No, I'm sorry. I was being stupid."

Elan looked at his son. It had been a very long time ago since Hawk had last apologized for his deeds.  
Noticing the look in his eyes, he could almost see it coming back to him. But he knew that his son's soul would never come back, that it had been replaced by something other than his own. He allowed himself the illusion of thinking he had his son back.

Two Clavats had already boarded the caravan. It was time to go.

Hawk turned to look his father in the eye.  
"Don't worry, Dad. I'll look after myself." For a single moment, man and child looked at one another, and in that moment all sins were forgiven.

Elan seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then he said "Take care."

Hawk walked towards the caravan. The Crystal Chalice was being held by one of the Clavats, a blond male with teal-shaded shirt and pants. The other Clavat sat next to the male, an auburn-haired female silently weaving a jacket of tweed.  
The male was quick to greet him. "Well, 'ello there, mate! You're Hawk, aren't ye?"  
Hawk looked up rather unconcernedly as he climbed inside. "Yeah."  
"Well I'm Bonta's son, Richie! You heard o' me I think. Me dad told you about me, din't 'e?"  
"Yeah. He did." He'd certainly heard a lot; a lot more than he would have welcomed as common knowledge.  
Richie jerked his thumb to his right. "She's Crazy."  
The girl merely stared at him, but Hawk did a double take. "Crazy...?"  
"Oh yeah, she's crazy, alright. Ain't a day I go anywhere without her. You see, she's my cousin, an' me dad's got it in 'is 'ead that we like eachother."

Richie tried to put his face in a state of anger, but he failed miserably and ended up with something like a false leer. He settled into a foolish smile.  
"Polygamy, tha's what it is! Dammit, if I 'ad a perfect life I wouldn't have to go nowhere with this here girl."  
"That's not-" Hawk began to correct him about polygamy, but before he could get the words out another person had climbed into the caravan.

Lo and behold, it was Hourai.  
Hawk lost his cool. "Hourai! What the hell are you doing here?"  
"Scenic view!" The old man got out again and jumped on top of the caravan in between the double tarps. "You're missin' out! They got a dang view from here! HEY FISHERMAN! FISHERMAN! OVER HE-" His words were promptly cut short by a fish that had been thrown at him, striking him squarely in the mouth.

The caravan shook and the wheels started to turn.  
Hawk began to think to himself.  
_Damn. This isn't going to be as fun as I thought. I'm stuck with two lovers and a retard. How wonderful._

Richie didn't know it, but he was bravely entering Hawk's mental personal space when he said "You know that old loon?"

"Hourai? Yeah, we've met."

"A bi' over the top, ain't he?"

"Uh...yeh. He gets in the way sometimes, but he's a damn good at stabbing people."

"Huh. Bag o' bones."

Crazy spoke for the first time. "He's very kind."

Richie rounded on her at once. "Kind? Any little soul who calls that loon 'kind' is as crazy as you are."

"Please stop calling me that, Richie..."

"Call you what? Tha's your name, ain't it?"

Hawk resolved to break it up. "What' your real name?"

"It's Carly, but Richie keeps calling me crazy-"

Richie broke in, "That's because ye are! Ain't no girl in the world who acts like you!"

"Please stop, Richie! Not in front of a guest-"

"Guests got a right to know the kind of people they with! All the women in the world an' I get stuck wit' my own cousin! I'd done better off a blind girl-"

Hawk almost lost himself completely. "SHUT UP!" Happiness, no. Getting along, no. Crazy old men, maybe. But abusive scuffles? Now that was something he could deal with.  
"I'm tired of this crap! I'm sick and tired of it! Nobody has the right to judge anyone! NOBODY! How can you just toss your cousin away like that, Richie? She's your COUSIN, FOR PETE'S SAKE! Why the hell d'you call her 'Crazy?' You're holding out on your relatives just cause you think it's funny? Where the hell does that kind of power come from? Stop acting like you get all the ladies, Richie, cause from what I hear, you got nothing! This is a whole load of bull!"  
Hawk's rage subsided and he sat down, muttering to himself, cursing the life out of everything.

He thought he could see a similarity between himself and Hourai: They both overreacted to stupid situations that probably happened all the time, not to mention that he was beginning to develop a skill for shutting people up and getting them to listen to his thoughts.  
Carly and Richie simply stared at him, awestruck.

Hawk decided to use his advantage and close the subject with another bugging issue. He lay down on the floor of the caravan and pulled a blanket towards him.  
"And one more thing. Don't ever call me 'guest.' I have a name and it was given to me for a reason. Now let me take a nap. Please."  
He fell asleep right on the spot.

Carly and Richie simply stared in opposite directions until Richie finally spoke. "Cr-Carly. I'm sorry for all those things I called ye. You didn't deserve it."

"You mean it, Richie?"

"I mean it. I'm sorry, Carly. It's gonna be different from now on, 'kay?"

Carly smiled.

Up above on the canvas tarps, Hourai was listening. When people think no one is watching them they are right. Because Hourai is no one.  
He smiled and whispered "I heard your dulcet tones in my sleep, young buck. Now look what you've done. I can't sleep!"  
Hourai chuckled and continued to look at the sky, which was turning the violet-orange color of evening. It had been a while since they left the village and already Hawk was showing some independence. Impressive, said Hourai to himself. Impressive.

Soon afterwards, Hourai fell asleep dreaming of fish and bread. Carly and Richie slept separately, thankfully, but the tension between them had considerably lifted. With Hawk dreaming his own dreams, the only one awake on the road was the papaomus pulling their caravan along.

* * *

End Chapter Three.


	4. Monday Is Never A Good Day

Monday, Funky Monday.

Now, reread that sentence and tell me what your unconscious mind told you it was. Odds are, you're slightly dyslexic.

Chapter Four: Monday Is Never A Good Day

* * *

"Hm? Eh, Garou? What's wrong?"

"I just looked; the giant crab ain't there!"

"What?"

"I even jumped through the waterfall and it didn't even attack me!"

"Really? Well, let's get going then!"

The two young boys jumped from their perch above the cave opening onto a wide stretch of grass. A river ran through the area from the right of the plain to the left. One of the boys, named Garou, ran towards the left side, carrying a crystal chalice in his hands, but the other walked to the waterfall in front, over which a rainbow shined.

"You're sure it's sleepin'?"

"I'm damn sure, now come on!"

"Eh, I dunno, Garou." The boy squatted slightly. "That's not normal, that is."

"Can we get a move on? Please? So we can get our myrrh and get out?"

The boy in front of the waterfall stood up, looking upwards at the rainbow. "Odd spectrum it's got today."

Garou sighed. "Oh, of all things-of all things, you've got to comment on a bloody rainbow."

"Well, it is odd in my opinion, I mean, look-" he gestured towards the arc of light "-it's missing several colors. There's no blue or violet or green or anything."

"Let's just get our myrrh, eh? Then we can admire the demented ribbon of light afterwards."

He looked up, heaved another sigh, then turned towards his partner. "You know, I don't even know why I bothered to go with you this year."

"Something to look forward to in Alfitaria, eh? That'll be the last time we'll see eachother."

"It's good to hope." He'd just started to walk when they heard a rumble. A slow grumbling could be heard behind the waterfall.

"Merro?" Garou looked up at his friend rather nervously. The boy named Merro had frozen. The grumbling grew louder. Little specks of dust around the cave opening and around the walls surrounding the waterfall were shaken into the air, the ground around them quaking slightly.

"Garou...? You didn't do anything when you jumped over the waterfall, did you?"

"No...I swear I didn't!"

It was as if the earth beneath them might give way at any moment. Then it stopped. Garou wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead and drew a poleaxe, setting down the chalice beside him. Merro cautiously donned his sword and shield, unconsciously aware that the lower half of his body was shaking slightly.

Oddly, the river's pace seemed to slow down...in fact, the river had ceased to run completely. Merro noticed this, but was already anticipating something else. What he was waiting for, he wasn't sure, but he wasn't at all keen to find out.

Unfortunately, he found out. A hulking, spiky mass erupted from under the riverbed, a snakelike beast covered in shell and claw. The entire length of the beast ran from the river's mouth through the border of the arena, to the opening behind the waterfall, a waterfall from which emerged the head of the monster. Eyes bubbling, jaws snapping, immensely huge claws tearing through the air...

Merro was paralyzed, unable to move in utter fear. Garou, the more courageous of the two, came to his senses more quickly, scooping up the chalice in one arm and attempting to drag his friend back through the cave with the other.

Merro hadn't registered his friend struggling to bring him back through the passage, his brain frozen with the image of the monster they were trying to flee. His mouth was trying to form words, but they caught in his throat before he could get them out.

"Ah-"

"MERRO! MERRO, COME ON!"

The feeling in his legs seemed to disappear. They collapsed, and Garou was pulled to the ground.

"Wh-"

"MERRO, GET UP! GET UP!!" Garou's pleads fell on slightly deaf ears.

The monster targeted them at last, smelling them on the air. It lunged forward, gouging the ground with the spikes on its underbelly.

But Merro's panic caught up with him at last.

"RUN!!"

They barely made it back through the cave with the beast at their heels.

**---**

_Dear Mother,_

_Hope everything is going okay. We're on our way to the River Belle Path, where we'll be collecting our first drop of myrrh. Carly and Richie have settled down, but otherwise it's been quite boring without a diversion of some sort.  
We met a caravan off the side of the road today, though. You wouldn't believe it: two members missing, along with their crystal chalice! We arrived there, and not a moment too soon; they might have died had we not been on the trail. They were quite panicky, their comrades having stolen their chalice and without a clue as to where they might've gone off to. Of course we (we meaning Richie, Carly, and Hourai) volunteered to look for them, but I doubt we'll find them anytime soon. They're riding with us right now, but they're in no condition to fight, or do anything else otherwise. I don't particularly mind, but if this gets in the way of our own quest, I won't be kind. I want to go round the world, mother. I want to see what is happening all around us. We've been stuck on the peninsula for nobody knows how long, stuck here with our outdated ways, with no contact with the outside world. Our last caravan succeeded, but their journey brought back precious little information on the outside world. Their news were, if possible, worse than no news at all.  
I hope to bring back some goods from Alfitaria and Marrs Pass. One of the lilties from the Alfitaria caravan told me that the Pass has some particularly fine materials for dad to use; I'll send some home when I can get them._

_Hawk_

_PS. The monsters have grown unnaturally strong. It suits me perfectly, as I doubt they'd have been any challenge in a normal state, but Carly and Richie seem to have problems merely surviving out here, with or without monsters to fight them. In fact, the only person out here who seems capable of taking care of themselves, apart from myself, is Hourai. Insane gobsmack that he is, he's very knowledgeable about survival in the wild. I have a feeling he's going to save our necks more than once during this trip, and I also have a feeling that, when that time comes, I won't ever be more thankful._

_

* * *

_

End Chapter Four.


End file.
